I searched far and wide for a good snippets manager. I even wrote an old blog post about two snippets managers.

I wanted an easy way to get snippets in and out of my IDEs, or other places maybe. I liked being able to have notes and things like that but it wasn’t totally a must. I needed to create groups/folders so I could find things quickly.

I had often heard about TextExpander but didn’t want to pay for it, thought I wouldn’t use it much, and didn’t see how it would assist me in any practical way. Turned out to simply be a matter of understanding. I wasn’t quite sure what the app did and how it did it.

My way of using TextExpander may not be the most practical or common use of the app. But it works for me. Not long ago I was talking to another developer friend and mentioned how I have a needed snippet in TextExpander and they responded in a manner that implied they didn’t fully understand why I had my snippets in there. I briefly explained and it occurred to me that maybe I should write a post about this. Perhaps using it the way I am is less common that I thought.

So, hopefully you can find this beneficial in some way.

For the lay person, at it’s simplest explanation, I’m using TextExpander to hold and organize very large and very small snippets of code.

What does TextExpander do exactly?

basically you type a string of characters, configurable a few different ways, and once that string is typed, the text “expands” and turns into the content that you have associated it with in TextExpander.

For example, my favorite and most used snippet is very short. I use CSS borders on all sorts of elements to see exactly what they’re doing during the building and debugging phase. Maybe a topic for another post, but if you’re not using a simple CSS border on elements during the initial development phase you should start. I have done a hand ful of sites that browser tested perfect first try and spent no time fixing issues. I directly attribute that to using borders during the build before anything is broken.

In TextExpander you have 3 elements. The Content, the Label and the Shortcut.

So here’s an example of a snippet I use every single day:

• Content: “border:1px solid red;”
• Label: 1px red border
• Shortcut: “borred” (my abbreviation for border red)

once I’ve typed “borred” it turns into the associated content.

Another I use a lot is a simple case of a background replace on various elements like h1. Any time I need to remove text from an element and show a background image i use the following shortcut.

• Content: ”
  background: left top no-repeat;
  display: block;
  width:px;
  height:px;
  margin:0;
  padding:0;
  text-indent: -9999px;
  “
• Label: “Basic Background Replacement “
• Shortcut: “bgReplace”

As you can probably predict, I type the selector, brackets and then type my shortcut which deliberately has no width and height since those will be specific to each instance and boom. Time saved.

That’s the simple stuff that was obvious to me when I first got the app. Stuff that I was typing over and over. Another is “marpad” which turns into “margin:0; padding:0;”. What I found though was that I could put much longer items in there and then determined that I could group them together logically to aid in speed of use.

So the heavy lifting stuff is my “HTML5 Layout” group. Within that I house various common layouts in both the HTML5 variety as well as their associated CSS. For example. Most every site breaks down by having a header, content area, 1 or 2 sidebars and a footer. Once you create a bare bones browser tested starting point there’s no reason to recode those structures anymore. It may seem illogical to have CSS snippets in the HTML5 Layout folder but I do that to keep them grouped together. I don’t need the other CSS content in any situation than the starting point of building a site. So having it in the CSS folder for semantics makes little sense. It would take longer to find the needed CSS to use with the HTML5 structure if it were in the CSS group, likewise it would make it harder for me to find other things.

Might be important to note at this point, I have so many entries into TextExpander that remembering the shortcuts at this point is near impossible. The things I use every day, I’ve memorized. Like the ones above for example.
What makes this ok is that TextExpander adds an icon to the menu bar that makes looking up items very easy. You can both search or just drill down into the folders if you know where something is.

As you can see, I have many groups organized in a particular way with the most used at the top. Its easy to drill down into a group, click on the needed item and it expands wherever your cursor was in whatever text editor.

Here’s a view of the actual TextExpander app open looking into the HTML5 Layout group.

I think now you may have an idea of how I’m using TextExpander as my snippets manager. If you would like some more details specifically feel free to leave a comment or contact me. I’m happy to help.

With that, I’m going to wrap this up by sharing some ideas for snippets that you can use. It took me a while to think of using the app to this extent so you get to have my trial and error knowledge without the pain. Maybe it’ll lead you to some new ideas and you can come back to share as well.

Here are some snippet ideas.

HTML Tags:

• h1/ = <h1></h1>
• p/ = <p></p>
• em/ = <em></em>
• ul/ = <ul></ul>
• li/ = <li></li>
• a/ = <a href=”" title=”"></a>
• ?/ =  <?php ?> (yes i know it’s not html. Thought it would be helpful to include it)

I think you get the idea there.

The trick to making good shortcuts is finding things you wouldn’t normally type. I don’t believe I’ve ever typed “ul/” until using it in TextExpander.

URLs:

• h/ = http://
• h/w = http://www.
• h/goo = http://www.google.com
• h/dav = http://www.davidsparks.me

You see the many uses. I have all URLs that I may need to type on a regular basis. You may be saying “um… thats what bookmarks are for nerd”. Well, I first had this idea when i was sick of typing “http://” in various needs. Once I got to that point i found myself typing “h/w” many times and then following it up with something like this sites URL. Some needs are in comments, often you’ll be asked to list your site. Perhaps a forum, on twitter or tumblr. You start to notice how often you type URLs that aren’t in the address bar.

Email Addresses:

• @pem = Personal EMail
• @wem = Work EMail

I have a hand ful of email addresses that I’m always typing. Typing emails is freaking annoying. I hate having to type the whole “@gmail.com” or whatever. It sucks, it’s a lot to type.

I have shortcuts for CSS, HTML, HTML Emails, Facebook tab development, words I always misspell, HTML5 tags, jQuery, php, javascript etc etc etc.

Hopefully this has provided you with some ideas or a starting point on what you can do with TextExpander as a web developer. I’ve already saved myself 13.5 hours of typing since using it which is quite a lot.

Related articles

• Cross-platform snippet syncing with Dropbox, TextExpander and Breevy (thinkvitamin.com)
• TextExpander Alternatives and Similar Software – AlternativeTo.net (alternativeto.net)

It all started many years ago when I was in a signed touring metal band. I was in charge of the merch. After working with a friend in our big brother band who was already established & making t-shirts for other bands & picking his brain on how to design shirts, I tried my first design. Subsequent designs were created & printed. I was hooked & people seemed to like them. I was then requested to make some designs for other bands & venues.

I was hooked & wanted to try & start a clothing line myself. That same friend who did our first initial shirts & helped me out had his own line at the time. It was something that had never occurred to me despite the fact that my band had played with Johnny Cupcakes band, at the venue I used to run with some friends in Memphis TN, & I saw what he was doing when he had first gotten started. Long before what he is today. I even asked him on twitter if he remembered playing there a year or so ago which he said he did. Pretty cool!

I had convinced myself that I was going to start my own line. A friend had a clothing store in town & she had agreed to sell my designs in her store, I just had to get them made. I wanted to start printing them myself & do everything on my own. That’s as far as it went though. I wasn’t in love with my designs & there was somebody that was around me at the time that had discouraged me citing difficulty screen printing, which I had no experience in, & expenses. So I slowly gave up.

Looking back it was for the better I think. The name I was using was probably one of the worst names I could imagine, the designs were cliche, sub par & not that inspiring & if I had failed then, I probably wouldn’t be giving it a go now.

Fast forward a few years & I’m reading various magazines like Computer Arts, trying to teach myself better graphic & web design after getting my first full time web job. In one of the magazines I saw a custom painted Munny. I had no idea what it was, but I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I set out to discover the designer toy scene then proceeded to spend a ridiculous amount of money on it. Slowly but surely the bug started to build up again only this time I wanted to start a toy company. However, some point along the way of researching how to get toys made I started to again get more & more interested in doing shirts. I had decided that shirts were more easily accessible and familiar to me, with already having experience, & that since I wanted to do both, starting off with shirts would be the best option.

The capacity & type of toys I produce is still being debated within my own head. Weather it’s actual vinyl or super limited boutique resin. Toys are in the plans though.

So here I am. Gearing up to launch my first line of shirts. Ducks are still being placed in a row so the exact launch date of the line is still a litte hazy but imminent no less.

I’m very inspired by 1950′s-1960′s advertising & design, typography, character illustration & the NASA space program. The designs will be very minimalist & simple pulling from these inspirations.

I also plan to work with other artists to produce shirts through my line once things get rolling. I’m very excited about my new line & I hope everybody else is too.

I’m considering having a launch party pop up shop somewhere on S. Main at some point on trolly night too.

To wrap this up, I’m throwing a contest where you can win a free shirt from the first line of shirts & there are 4 ways to win.

1. Sign up for the mailing list at Astrobot.co
2. Follow TheAstrobot on Twitter
3. Like TheAstrobot on Facebook (You can also sign up for the mailing list through facebook on the mailing list tab)
4. Follow TheAstrobot on Tumblr.

Doing each of these increases your chances to win. 1 random person will be selected from each of those categories & will receive a free t-shirt! Doesn’t get much easier than that.

One of the things I did for my talk was provide everybody with the PSD file that i personally use when designing a new Twitter background. It has background mock up examples, guides, common resolution demonstrations and a twitter content area to simulate what things will look like live.

I figured others may also find this useful and maybe somebody forgot to write down the full url and hasn’t been able to download it etc. So here it is. If you would like to use the Twitter template I use, have at it!

Twitter Background Design Template PSD

Related articles

• Free New Twitter PSD Background Template (fuelyourcreativity.com)
• 30 Fresh Web UI, Mobile UI and Wireframe Kits (speckyboy.com)
• Free PSD Template: 6R Wooden Portfolio (sixrevisions.com)
• Photoshop Dexterity (PSD) – Using Photoshop Tools In Real Life (laughingsquid.com)
• 10 Beautiful PSD Web Templates Of July 2010 For Free Download (resources.savedelete.com)

The truth is, that isn’t how people are using these services and those people who made those gripes are almost certainly members of Facebook who routinely make ports or spins on those blossoming trendy technologies and they’re now common place. First it was a reworking of their statuses. Then it was a reworking of the feed that looks just like twitter. then pictures and video showed up in your feed and you could check them out without leaving. Now twitter is reworking it’s feed to do the same. Now Places has been created to capitalize on Foursquare though Places has a glaring problem that gives FS an advantage. Places has no badges, specials or mayor ships. No incentives to using the service. To date people just keep using Foursquare and like services with a few exceptions.

Image via CrunchBase

Those same people that complained about those services now see their favorite site adopting those practices.

Geo Location/Tagging is much more interesting though because of the privacy challenges it will face as well as the eventual benefits it will provide when more advances are made.

For me personally, I’m very interested in politics, civil rights, being aware of what your rights are in general as a citizen and protecting them. One of those rights does include privacy however, the Internet has caused us all to rethink what privacy actually means. In ye olden days privacy meant you lived out on a farm a couple hours horse ride into town where nobody could see in your windows. Later it meant nobody could watch you change clothes in a department store dressing room. At the core though privacy has remained the same in 1 way. We as individuals decide what our personal privacy level is. Choice is the key word. Old timers chose to relinquish their privacy when they would ride into town. People chose to relinquish a little privacy when they step out of the dressing room in the new outfit to show a friend or look in the mirror. Today, we chose where we check in. Where and when we broadcast our location. There’s another level though and that’s who we allow that broadcast to be intercepted by which is the purpose of this post.

On facebook we chose who our friends are and within those sometimes we chose to hide certain things from them as well with privacy settings. On twitter you can have a private profile or not sync your foursqare to it. On foursquare you approve or decline friendship requests etc.

Recently I had an automated service retweet my foursqaure post without my approval. That service is locationtweet. Before that, months ago when i first started using foursqaure there was a website that was collecting twitter posts from foursquare and archiving them on their site. Without my permission. I tweeted them telling them that they remove my location tweets permanently because I didn’t grant them permission. They responded quickly letting me know it had been taken down. This twitter account, locationtweet did not respond to my demand to no longer list me in their service.

To me, this is the core of the privacy issue regarding location services and the first thing that needs to be addressed, by whom, I’m not sure. Government, isp, foursquare or twitter them self. I’m not particular about who does it but I absolutely want it to happen. It may seem harmless and insignificant but entertain me.

I broadcast my physical location to the world, but I do so understanding in generalities who can see it. I have a decent understanding of my twitter followers, who i’m friends with on Foursquare and Facebook. Sometimes I check in without sharing with friends. Sometimes I only share it with Foursquare, sometimes just Foursquare and Twitter. The point is I’m in control and every check in is a conscious decision to do so while understanding the conditions.

Services like locationtweet and the other i mentioned exploit this use of technology without the permision or choice of the individual. Their obvious argument is that it’s there for all to see anyway. My response is that yes, all can see it, but i know who all generally is, all aren’t seeing it and their aiding in others seeing it i have no idea about. You’ve likely heard about the pleaserobme.com which now appears to be shut down. The premise was them posting your location implying that you’re not home so go break into my house. I can appreciate the humor in such an effort but it’s also offensive, potentially dangerous and could end up putting some body’s life in danger. Maybe unlikely but all that aside it gets to the core of what I’m talking about. Services should not be allowed or permitted to use my location, my content and the content i generate for services I’m a willing member of for their personal gain without my permission. If foursquare gave them permission to do so, I would look at what they offered and brought to the table. If nothing I would try to opt out and if I couldn’t i would legitimately stop using the service.

Privacy is choice. The conscious decision to share information about yourself and your location. It’s no longer living in your house with the doors and blinds shut. Services that remove my choice from me is an exploit and violation of my privacy and it’s wrong.

There are exciting things in store for location based services. It is the next frontier but something will have to be done on this front to protect our choice in the hopefully near future.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Foursquare Focuses on Privacy on Eve of Expected Facebook Location Launch (mashable.com)
• Facebook tries to head privacy critics off at the pass (theglobeandmail.com)
• Exclusive: Top Privacy Group to Discuss Facebook Places With FTC (dailyfinance.com)
• 5 Geo-Location Services You Should Know About (bloggingot.com)
• Foursquare founder: Privacy fears are exaggerated (newscientist.com)
• Create a Geoprofile for your Location-Based Life [Interview] (socialtimes.com)

So I’m not sure when this happened, but I just noticed it.

While doing an image search for iPhone Wallpapers I noticed one of my favorite digital artists’, James White‘s images on the page. At first I thought that was really bizarre that google would just happen to show one of my favorite artists stuff in the results. Then I noticed that they added something new. I wasn’t sure how exactly they figured out any kind of connection with James White but upon clicking “My Social Circle” I discovered the quite lengthy answer.

It appears google uses 3 ways to created connections.

1. gChat and Gmail contacts
2. Contacts found through your extended network via google profile. Meaning, I have my facebook and twitter linked to my Google Profile among other sites. It checks for matches through whatever sites i seemingly have listed on my Google Profile and gets relevant content.
3. Other people. Information pulled from other peoples links. So if I pop up in your information and have some pictures on my flickr or blog you might be looking for, there they are.

Quickly scrolling through, it would appear about 80% of my connections are established through my Twitter account while the other 20% is split up between Flickr and my email contacts.

This is pretty interesting and provides for some cool opportunities. If my friend posts a picture I thought was funny and I wanted to find it again, this should make that process MUCH easier. With everybody branching out more and more in terms of how many services their a part of, remembering if my friend posted that lolcat on Facebook, in an email or on Twitter might be unnecessary now. as long as Google knows how many connections I have with that person, it should be able to find the images.

My Social Content.

The other aspect of the new feature is seeing what content you’re providing. A quick look at the links you’ve listed on your google profile and you get a broad picture of where content is coming from. Maybe you want to add some more, maybe you need to take some off. I’ll be adding my Tumblr accounts for sure.

All cool new features that i think are very welcome to most. Should make some aspects of searching a lot easier. And that’s why we use Google in the first place.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Why Google Profiles Won’t Kill Facebook or LinkedIn (leehower.com)
• Will WordPress Gravatars Kill Off Google Profiles? (blogherald.com)
• 3 Myths About Google Profiles and 2 Reasons to Have One Anyway (socialmediatoday.com)

If you know me, you know I LOVE Wu-Tang Clan. There is one aspect of the band/group that has always driven me crazy though. Their visuals. The album covers and designs have always left me feeling cheated. Like the full experience was never realized. Like they’ve been misunderstood and mishandled this whole time and that they’ve never been told or know any better.

If you know me, you know I LOVE Wu-Tang Clan. There is one aspect of the band/group that has always driven me crazy though. Their visuals. The album covers and designs have always left me feeling cheated. Like the full experience was never realized. Like they’ve been misunderstood and mishandled this whole time and that they’ve never been told or know any better.

I wish they would let me design their album covers. The subject matter they rap about and particularly the eastern aspects like kung fu, shaolin monks, religion, various martial arts references, old movie samples and dialog. Even NYC & Staten Island. The wealth of inspiration to draw from is and always has been endless.  The ability to reinforce their identity established in their lyrics via previously listed subject matter through visual design elements is maybe better than any other group or band i can think of. For sure hip hop. They are more rich with original content than almost anybody else.

I think its one thing that metal, hardcore, punk, rock n roll, indie etc bands have all mastered. Even lame ass hipster bands know they have a look and they reinforce it when they can. MC’s and Rappers live it, look it and breath it just the same. But they seemingly forget or take shortcuts on the design. T.I. for example seems to present at least some semblance of an identity that he’s high class rapping about every day stuff. This is what you get from his CD covers. Jay-Z on the other hand is all over the map.

Rap and Hip Hop have only done this in one way with exceptions and they all do it the same. They also deviate from the path most times. The problem is… not all rap and hip hop is the same. Even though i HATE Kanye hes an exception. Teaming up with Kaws and various artists to create a look that matches what you think his sounds would visualize into. the poppy attitude his tracks have a feeling that is backed up by the attitude of the visuals. When you think Kanye you think about these colors and shapes along side certain songs and hooks.

Tribe called quest had a look and stuck with the the traditional African color pallet.

There is no reason, for a band rich with solid legitimate content like Wu-Tang to have these lame album covers that have no valid relation to them as people, artists or the lyrics. Each one is completely different. They even have what most bands lack. An incredible logo mark that functions perfectly without any accompanying type. I have a Wu-Tang belt buckle on right now. When you see the shape you know its Wu-Tang despite not saying it anywhere. That is so rare for a band to have, and such a luxury I’m not entirely sure I can come up with a good enough example to convey its significance. I’m sure their best selling merchandise consists of the yellow logo on something. Like a black t-shirt. Because fans like their brand. Wu-Tang doesnt seem to know what their sitting on or care too much about their brand outside of the music they create.

As you can see from some of the albums… there’s no real representation of the group in any of them. No visual clues as to what their about. None of them are necessarily bad designs. They’re all just opportunities missed/cop outs. The first one sets the tone for what could have been very interesting. Faceless Urban Ninjas but then the ball is dropped swiftly with the Forever album. I will say my personal taste, that one is bad. the squished image of a hug show, unrelated head shots transformed strange and the pointless globe behind the too large logo.

I may not be the best artist for the job, but i could do better than what they currently have had to date and I understand branding and marketing better than most artists.

While the bellow falls a little short of its potential, like i said. I may not be the best artist for the job. but this is definitely close to what i had in mind. More of a mixture of hip hop/nyc style with eastern traditional style. It’s not incredible by any means, but its better than the above in my opinion simply because you get a feel for what wu-tang represents.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Wu-Tang Clan – Return of the Wu: Mixed by Mathematics (idiomag.com)
• RZA Confirms Liquid Swords 2 (current.com)
• Method Man Says Wu Tang Album was Rushed by Label (current.com)
• Wu-Tang Clan members get their own covers on “Wu Massacre” (idiomag.com)
• Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA to release Liquid Swords sequel (guardian.co.uk)

Many moons ago I ran a website called OurMemphis.net. You can read the history of that site and how it eventually turned into YourMemphis.net on the YourMemphis Back Story page. Since it’s already there I wont go on and on about it here but in short the url holds some sentimental value. Only a few months ago I turned down an offer for the domain name that priced at a couple thousand.

The purpose of YourMemphis is to have a place where anyone can submit ideas on how to make Memphis a better place to live, work, play and raise a family. You can also vote on others ideas as well as comment on them and discuss at length. It’s like Digg for Memphis improvements. The cool thing is you can log in using many of the services you’re already a member of like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Google, WordPress or many others. You sign in with those and it automatically creates you an account on YourMemphis and you’re ready to go! Couldn’t be any easier.

So be sure to go share your ideas on how you would like to improve Memphis. Maybe it’s something you wish Memphis had. More museums, a theme park, something cooler than Bass Pro in the Pyramid etc etc. The List is endless and you can submit every idea you have even if its silly. Then Promote your idea by getting your friends to vote and comment on it.

I can also tell you that important people in the city government are already looking at this and are hoping it can become a useful tool for development so you’re voice will not only be heard, but it’ll be heard by people you want it to be heard by. It’s like the Pepsi Refresh project but exclusive to Memphis. Submit ideas and vote on others.

A great way to encourage discussion on what this city needs as well as letting elected officials know what the public wants, what they don’t want and allowing them an easy way to stay in touch with the community.

So spread the word! Tell your mom ‘n them!

Being that it’s mid February, sort of, and being the huge movie fan that I am I decided to make a little post about the topic. But first, a back story.

I love movies! I have over 300 dvd’s but to be more specific I love documentaries (the most)! I had the idea to do a blog were I reviewed documentaries only but all the good domain names i could think of were obviously gone. With this new post I think I’m going to add a dimension to my blog. A movies category. It’ll allow me an opportunity to rant regarding bad movies which i do regularly and also review documentaries.

That said, it’s not really the point of this post. I was trying to list some up coming movies for this year to a friend and couldn’t come up with as many as i liked off the top of my head so i decided to look them up and was quite surprised to see some of the titles. In a fit of inspiration i Decided it’s time to list my top 20 most anticipated movies of 2010.

1. Iron Man 2

   The first Iron Man was incredible. I can’t really think of any flaws off the top of my head. I’m sure some snobby Kid obsessed with the comic can find something to gripe about, but in comparison to Comic to Movie ports, this is easily one of the best. Dark Knight, Spider Man 2, Xmen 1, Dare Devil (kidding) and Iron Man. I love Rourke and he’ll make a bad ass Whiplash.

2. Machete

   As a huge fan of Death Proof and Planet Terror, I’m super excited about this movie. The trailer was featured before Grind House and I was super excited. Danny Treio is pretty awesome. This could end up being his best movie.

3. Tron Legacy

   This is probably my most anticipated movie of 2010. I love the first tron and getting Bridges back in there is beyond awesome. One of the early places I found out about Tron Legacy was from James White when he did his own version of a poster design for it. Here’s the Official Tron Trailer (embed Disabled)

4. Alice in Wonder Land

   I have some back story relating to me being a very big Alice in Wonderland fan that i don’t feel like getting into. however I’m fairly excited about this movie. Not as excited as all my friends for some reason but none the less excited. I don’t Like everything Tim Burton has done to be honest and I’m a little concerned he didn’t make this to my standards of what it should be. we’ll see though. Here’s the Official Alice in Wonderland Trailer (embed disabled)

5. The Last Airbender

   Formerly Avatar: The Last Airbender Based of the Nickelodeon series my girlfriend is obsessed with. It’s pretty good and I expect the movie will be better than the tv show. We shall see. I’m sure you can guess the reason behind the name change. The show is geared for kids and as such the humor is fairly cheesey. Because of this I would suggest you watch the first season at least before seeing the movie both for the back story but also so that you can know what to expect in a sense. If the movie is cheesey like the show it, having seen the show it probably wont be a reason for you to dislike it.

6. Scream 4

   The first Scream movie was a game changer in my opinion. It lead the way for a lot of movie norms we see today. At least in the horror genre. I’m hoping this one is closer to the quality of the first one and not the 3rd one. No trailer at the moment.

7. Predators

   I believe Robert Rodriguez made this as well as Machete. Alien is my all time favorite movie. By proximity I of course love Predator. I’m sure with Rodriguez’s gritty style and retro flare it’ll be pretty killer. Currently no trailer, just a bunch of fake ones like Scream 4 but I’m definitely hoping there’s a legit one very soon.

8. Thundercats

   I was always more concerned with a billion other things going on as a kid than i was with Thundercats. it was never my main interest by any means but going off the casting… It looks like it could be pretty cool. Hopefully more Xmen 1 than Transformers 2. The fan made trailer is beyond hilarious. Props to whoever made it.

9. The A-Team

   I’m not sure how many of you out there reading are men around the age of 24 to 35 but if you find yourself in that age category, the odds that you watched The A-Team religiously are quite good. I easily fall within that category. I loved the A-Team. one of my favorite shows without question when i was pretty young. The casting looks pretty good and believable. I don’t think it’ll be bad… but I’m not expecting it to hold up to most of our high standards of what the A-team should be. Hopefully, I’m wrong and they knock it out of the park.

10. Salt

    If you like the crazy modern action movie and conspiracy genres I suppose you’ll flip over this. Nothing in it looks painfully stupid like Mr. & Mrs. Smith did. That doesn’t mean there’s not potential for it though. I’m skeptical for sure. I imaging that I’ll end up in the theater seeing it but it’ll probably be the first and last time I watch it.

11. Clash of the Titans

    A remake of a classic that I wasn’t that into when i was younger. This remake does look very good though. Solid at least. The monsters look well done, the action looks decent. I didn’t see any bullet time which sometimes all that’s needed for a passing grade in my book. Should be a good movie.

12. Nightmare on Elm Street 2010

    I have a few friends that are pretty upset about so many remakes, or remakes of classics that are badly done. Sometimes I’m one of those people. The new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a travesty set upon Gene Wilder and the Umpa Loompas. That said there are many movies that are perfect for remakes. Lost on previous generations (wonka wasn’t) or movies that had in the past reached the limit of their effects technology. The Rob Zombie Halloweens are great. I think something like the Freddy movies is perfect for a remake because of the effects that are able to be done now. It would be cooler if it were without typical Hollywood cheese but the ones of yesteryear had their cheese as well. It’s part of what made them cool. I think this will be pretty awesome. I’ve heard a few arguments that Robert Englund made the movies and nobody can do a better job (Wilder > Depp) but if there was ever a guy to play a new Freddy, Jackie Earl Haley is absolutely the guy. If he didn’t convince you of that in The Watchmen you’re crazy. He’ll be downright frightening. I’m pretty pumped about this. The only valid argument is that Wes Cravens vision for the movie considering he wrote and directed it will be stronger and more genuine than
    Samuel Bayer (director), Wesley Strick (screenplay)/Eric Heisserer (screenplay) and Wesley Strick (story). That’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen which increases the chance for Hollywood crap always resulting in dumbing down for the lowest common denominator where as a single provider for a vision will stick to his guns. All that said, It’ll be good. maybe not as good, but justifiable in being remade.

13. Kick Ass

    I dont know how to feel about this. The first couple minutes it looks cool. Looks like somebody taking a decent run off the laurels of The Watchmen when a different twist, then it gets really apparent being geared for kids. To me it would be cool to see a kid take on a persona/costume, beat up on some bad dudes, get beat up on etc and manage to do some damage over time without any powers. In watchmen they did seem to have some level of super strength. A normal punch or kick and the guy goes flying. It would be cool if this had less of that but then the other kids enter and it seems to take a step in the wrong direction. In the trailer i was on board till “Hit Girl” and “Big Daddy” get in on the action. Why is this little girl fighting grown men and winning. stop it. why is Nick Cage firing guns? That’s what made super heroes cool, they didnt need guns. Granted you had some who did. Cable, Punisher etc. But even Kick Ass has some batons and Hit Girl has a staff. I don’t know. Hopefully it’s good anyway. Doesnt look bad, just that it probably misses the mark.

14. Agora

    I don’t know much about this movie but I like the subject of ancient Rome and can’t go wrong with Rachel Wise. Not sure what to make of it, but doesn’t look bad.

15. Showgirls 2

    The Rest of the titles have no trailers that I can find. I included Showgirls 2 simply because the first one wasn’t exactly winning any awards, that ship has sailed and they’re just now making a sequel? That’s pretty hilarious.

16. Rambo 5

    I didn’t see the newest one but my friends tell me its the bloddiest movie ever. Seems only natural to expect they attempt to one up the last.

17. The Green Hornet

    I love comic ports however they anger me deeply when done poorly. SpiderMan 3. Both Punishers, Wolverine, Dare Devil (a favorite comic growing up). From what i’ve been told, this will be in the company of those titles which depresses me. I’ll reserve full judgment until a trailer is revealed.

18. Stone

    I know little about this movie but am intrigued simply because of the names Dinero and Norton attached to it.

19. Robin Hood

    I won’t lie to you. The only reason this movie made my list is because it has a trailer and I needed one more for 20. As you will see, I’m not at all excited about this movie.. Like Sherlock Holmes which I didn’t like at all, this movie has little to no resemblance to what we all know as Robin Hood. At least going by the trailer. Add that to Robin Hood being played by Russel Crowe and you have a pretty big recipe for disaster in my opinion. It’s almost certain I’ll be very angry at the end of this movie. Robin Hood is supposed to be your out spoken, in the public eye clever hero that cant be caught. Gingerly leaping from one enemies head to the next to swing from a near by pole onto the roof. Sure he has the bow and arrow but it’s only for hunting. It’s only saving grace is that it’s directy by Ridley Scott who I recognize, i give to much credit for still based on my favorite movie Alien. That said, I first saw the trailer in the theater. Watching closely I was at first a little interested. until the very last frame of the trailer when the text “Robin Hood” appeared on screen. Please, somebody tell me. What in the trailer looks like anything you would know as Robin Hood? Nothing. It’s freaking Robin Hood man! Not William Wallace part 2! Insult to injury is the over played juxtaposition of movie genre / music genre. There is no reason to have industrial sounding music during Robin Hood as well as massive battle scenes. If you can’t tell. I’m not happy.

20. Red Dawn 2010

    Ok I lied. Here’s a trailer but it’s for the original Red Dawn. I never saw the original but I imagine at the time it was pretty terrifying. Speaking of terrified, I’m extremely nervous they’re going to put some “terrorist” spin and ruin the movie. My reason for thinking that is I’m not exactly sure how well a Russian invasion of America is going to translate to todays movie goer. When i go to the theater it’s primarily young kids who ashamedly probably know next to nothing about the cold war. So the movie can stick to its guns, so to speak, or roots and attract the older crowd, guys like me, or it can throw in some “terrorists” and joe blow will watch. I know little about the 2010 version so my suspicion is high will my expectation is low.

And to spice things up, 10 Movies Slated for 2011 That Might Rule:

1. Green Lantern

   Growing up my favorite comics in no order were Green Lantern, Dare Devil and Deadpool. You can Imagine the life of agony I’ve had to endure with Deadpool being a travesty in that crap Wolverine movie and Dare Devil being even more destroyed by Ben Freaking Afleck. I’ll be mortally wounded if i go 3 for 3. Please, just give me Green Lantern. To say the least I’m terrified.

2. Conan 2011

   Loved the old ones when i was a kid. Assuming Arnold is still on his acting hiatus, I’m not sure who would be a good replacement. I’m also unsure how well this will translate. You accept the goofiness of the old ones because they’re so old. Don’t think the new one will receive such grace

3. Robocop 2011

   Now this is what I’m talking about. I even liked Robocop 3! It’ll have to be pretty awful for me to not love this. I had the toys and everything growing up.

4. Thor

   I was really hoping for a good thor movie. I have no reason to suspect this will be bad considering the Iron Man franchise as well as the last hulk is gearing up for the Avengers movie. I might guess that Thor comes out first to establish the ground work then Captain America actually kicks off the Avenger Genisis.

5. Silver Surfer

   I didn’t read a lot of Silver Surver when i was little but i thought he was one of the coolest characters ever created. He definitely made the newer Fantastic 4. A whole movie about him should be pretty awesome.

6. Cloverfield 2

   Cloverfield is probably one of the worst movies to sequel. everybody died, you supposedly got the monster and the first one had the whole viral marketing thing that had people interested in the first place. Now the viral marketing wont work because there’s no mystique with the cat being out of the bag and no characters to relate to. That said, it wasn’t a bad movie and they’ll have another shot at fixing what sucked in it the first one. I doubt they’ll pull it off though.

7. First Avenger: Captain America

   Another Comic port I’m very much looking forward to. In my mind Captain America has 2 personas. The dorky kind and the bad ass dont mess with that dude kind. the ladder is beyond awesome. The kinda bad ass we saw in the Civil War series. I thought the Avengers were great growing up. I even have a Captain America and Thor bobble head on my desk right next to me as i type. See

8. Halo

   Let me clarify. I don’t think this is going to be good. It could be, but I doubt it however. They do have a sizable market that will absolutely see this even if they know it’s going to suck. So it gets a spot on the list.

9. Pirates of the Caribean 4

   Kind of surprised to see another one. I didn’t expect they would do more. I was ho hum about the 3rd one. Not my favorite but it was good.

10. Red Sonja 2011

    Directed by Rodriquez and startin Rose McGowan. What’s not to like. Well maybe the 2008 comic con confirmation and now pushed back till 2011. Who knows if this gets made. If both of them are involved it’ll probably be decent. We shall see

Fire. The greatest achievement man has ever accomplished. All animals run from fire. There are two scenarios in which man laid claim to fire.

1. He found it. Maybe a fire in the heat of summer. Maybe lightening stuck.
2. He accidentally created it.

Either way, the following step showed a clear difference between man and animal. We didn’t run. Instead we curiously conquered. Fire immediately became a game changer. Providing heat during the cold, a weapon, a way to clean and cook things, protection from predators etc. Any adult and probably child could easily comprehend the importance of fire.

Up to this point, these statements should be accepted by anybody regardless of really any affiliation. There’s nothing revolutionary or mind boggling here, nothing controversial. But then comes the “AH HAH”.

I grew up as a Christian. In a Christian home. Went to a private Christian elementary school. Grew up going to one of the biggest churches in the US. My point here is make it clear, I was constantly absorbing in one form or another the bible. Though I’m not as “on point” as I once was, I do know the bible very well. I’ve been studying it all my life up till my mid 20’s I’d say. 22, 23 or so. And while I may not be actively studying the book itself, I am still driven by an incurable desire to know what the hell is up with this book. Having the answers to all it’s questions and filling in the blanks has been a main motivating factor for me since my teens when I realized the concept of cuss words had nothing to do with the bible or Christianity but the human mind in all its splendor </sarcasm>.

The thought that’s been driving me crazy is this: If fire was the greatest achievement of man, which it should be considered such, and God created man a long with the plants, animals, clouds, lightening, etc etc etc… Then why does the bible never document the arrival of fire or the harnessing of its power?

According to Christianity, the origin of the human species takes place in the garden of Eden when God takes some dirt and breathes life into it. 3 or 4,000 years ago, give or take (which is also scientifically absurd but beside the point). This takes place in the book of Genesis which goes down the list of where all this got started. Laying in bed I quickly ran through all areas of the bible that mentioned fire aside from “lakes of fire” and hell. Meaning literal, ouch i just burned my hand with this bic liter, fire. I could only recall a few. The burning bush which hardly counts. Only one man saw it, isn’t that always the case, they already had it because as i recall they burned their idols etc that they created while Mosses was up on the mountain (or so the movie goes hah), but if that was the origin surely bringing a torch down would have further validated the importance of the stone tablets. “God gave me these commandments as well as this thing called fire to prove it”. Didn’t happen.

Enter the 2nd greatest invention after fire, the Internet. Turns out, there’s a fully search-able bible online. Enter your keyword and viola, all instances are before you. The burning-non-burning bush occurred in Exodus 3:1-3. Man arrived in Genesis so that’s close but not close enough. Issac tried to burn his son alive and was such a con had his son himself convinced this was a good idea. This was probably the most memorable early occurrence, chronologically, any of you have of fire. They burned a goat instead that was caught in a bush no less, I see a pattern. Regardless. In Genesis 22:6 Issac carries the fire and knife up the mountain. Meaning, pre-made, in a container, fire.

there’s only one more left but you can see for yourself. http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=fire&version1=31&searchtype=all&limit=none&wholewordsonly=no

In Genesis 15:17 there is reference to a smoking firepot and a blazing torch. That’s it. the earliest mention of fire, and it’s not a new concept, or new word, or idea or invention. Just plain, old, regular boring run of the mill fire.

So my Issue is this, like I already stated. If God created all, and fire is the most important achievement in human life, why is it not stated that God either himself created fire being that it’s so important, after all, Lucifer had to have somewhere to go correct? Or that his creation, man, discovered, harnessed or created fire himself? All mentions in the bible show no indication of fire being a new concept but one that was common and an everyday part of life.

I’m of the belief that if one part of the bible is incorrect then by proximity and principle all parts have to be considered incorrect or at minimum be taken with an epic grain of salt. I find most Christians agree and believe all parts of the bible have to be true for it to be accurate and that you believe in all of the bible or none of it. Of course until some part is proven wrong. Then that rule is tossed aside. For me, the fact that the bible does nothing in terms of resolving the invention or capturing of fire is a huge flaw and gap in the reality of the origin of man therefore proof that the bible is wrong and as a result that religion is a farce. Most every religion is actually the documentation on the origin of a culture or civilization. They all have creation stories, all very similar. Science has proven the earth is older than the bible claims and that such a claim is impossible. Instead it’s more likely that Christianity and the bible are actually documenting the origin of Jewish people and their ancestors. Which is funny to me because I’ve known so many Christians who believe Jewish people are going to hell for not believing in Christ. This would make sense when taking into account that at the very first mention of fire, its already considered common knowledge what fire even is. By then it would have been used for hundreds of thousands of years. Possibly even a million or 2.

So that’s my “AH HAH!”. My deep thought, my proof of the fallibility of the bible therefore Christianity and then logically of all religion

Weather you’re tongue blocking or lip pursing, gotta get it. I’m not going down the tongue blocking route. I’ll use the technique for octaves and things like that but i dont plan on focusing on that any time soon which is neither here nor there.

This site is so far the best i’ve found for learning to bend notes. That said, I’ve watched hours of youtube videos, read tons of sites and when skimming through this I realized this site helped me only because I pieced so many of everything together. So, I’m going to put all those pieces together here and maybe somebody will find them and it’ll help.

That said, I’m just now starting to be able to bend. so far only on the A and C harp and just a few holes. I also cant hold it well yet. It’s likely I’m still doing things wrong but the point of this in my search I wasnt even sure when somebody was bending, what a bend was exactly, how to know if i was bending, i was doing something with my tongue and thought it was bending. Turns out it wasn’t etc. So this is also to help identify all those things.

This site has an animated image that shows you how your tongue should behave. This along with one other tip I’m going to give when pieced together in my head was what helped me finally bend a note.

That diagram that’s listed however illustrates how you would do it if you wanted to go the tongue blocking route which seems incredibly advanced and when you factor in bending, it makes my head hurt. So ignore that. The visual of how your tongue should look will help you though. I can also assure you, if you think you’re doing it, you’re not. When you do it, you’ll know. When your tongue does drop the air will fly past that part of your tongue very fast and it wont feel like anything you’ve ever felt before. I grew up playing Saxophone and I never did anything like this for sure. Now you may not be bending it all the way, but when you finally get it, you’ll definitely know, and not just think you’re doing it. So:

Tip 1: Tape. If you’re not good at single notes yet this will help. Even if you are you should try this anyway. I’m decent at single notes now and doing this gave me 1 less thing to think about allowing me to fully concentrate on my tongue, not be distracted by other notes invading the sound.

My first bend cam on a C harp’s 2 hole draw so I’ll recommend you use the same. Also helps bc at the bottom of the first link there’s audio and he uses a C. Doing the same will allow you to confirm you got a bend with his.

Take some tape and cover the 1 hole as well as the remaining holes while leaving the 2 open. You can now fully press your lips against the harp and think only about your tongue.

Tip 2: Saying words. In the first link he asks you to pronounce Weeeee Oooooo. This never helped me a ton but it might have been because of the way i pronounce the sound. i think the sound you want is a long O sound instead of and “ew” type O sound if that makes sense. I saw another video that said his magic phrase to learning was saying “Weedle Doodle”. So there must be something to that, but so far It hasnt unlocked anything for me just yet. Maybe it will as i progress or need to change back and forth in notes.

Tip 3: This is the piece. This is the thing that finally helped me when i put everything together. After taping the harp, reading and listening to that first link over and over, I did what Adam Gussow mentioned in one of his MANY youtube videos. While doing a 2 hole draw on the C harp, tap the roof of your mouth with the tip of your tongue effectively pointing it up. As you tap it, move the tip of your tongue backwards as if its going down your throat. If you do this right and enough times, the back of your tongue will finally lay down which is what causes more air pressure to rush in faster thus bending the note.

not having to worry about my lips with the tape helped a lot.

You have to remember to try and force your tongue to lay down in the back while tapping and moving the tip backwards also. That’s an important part. If you do it over and over I think you’ll eventually get it.

I’m not sure it’s really how hard you draw but i see no harm in trying to draw hard at first. Another thing that i think helped me was i would try it on 4 different harps over and over back and forth between them all and each time i would frantically move my tongue all over the place just looking for any kind of signal that i was in the ball park of a bend. I never came close this way, but it helped me know what wasnt a bend as well as knowing for sure what a bend was when i finally got it.

So recap!

* Use tape for now!
* Tap the the roof of your mouth with the tip of your tongue while doing a 2 hole draw.
* Gradually move the tip of your tongue back.
* Do that repeatedly till you’re able to not think about it and then as your tongue gets further and further in the back, try to force your tongue to lay down. like an exagerated yawn but instead of it being in your esophagus, its still in the oral cavity. kind of at the drop off point for the tongue and throat.
* Sit up straight.
* Point your jaw up a little. that helped me at first some.
* Dropping your jaw may help also when you move your tongue back and down.
* To release the bend you can pull your jaw in or point your chin down.

Hopefully that will help somebody. You’re now up to speed with me. I cant do it on other harps yet without tape really. so im still working on keeping my ambushers correct while dropping my tongue. Insanely hard.